Cosmic Corner: Magnetic Reversal of the Sun

The sun has fully flipped upside down! It’s true! Believe it or not, this interesting phenomenon happens about every 11 years. This cycle is what we call the magnetic reversal of the sun’s poles. According to NASA it has officially happened and is quite remarkable. The Sun’s north and south poles complete a swap of negative and positive charges to reach the halfway mark of our current solar cycle 24. When this happens the
sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. The magnetic fields now begin their next cycle which will end in another reversal after a 22 year long process. The Earth flips its magnetic field too, but only about every 300,000 years or so.